Tag Archives: zuppa di pesce

Leaving Martha’s Vineyard behind, with no sighting of the Obamas under our belts, we take the ferry back to Falmouth, on the Cape.

The Island Queen, but no sign of American royalty.

The kind man at the Chatham Wayside Inn had recommended a place for dinner, La Cucina Sul Mare, an Italian ristorante on 237 Main St, Falmouth.

Of course, being foolish and not learning any lessons from anything, we fail to make reservations and the ristorante is full, with many people – like us – trying to get in at the last moment.

The children and I walk around a little green that has headstones of American soldiers from Cape Cod who died in WW2, while my sister-in-law goes off to try her luck.

In memory of those lives lost in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium

There’s just something about the very young and something old…

Playing while waiting…

This is when I shall tell you a secret to getting into busy restaurants without a reservation. You have to be a really, really nice person. Be politely persuasive. Exhibit empathy and civility. Set yourself well apart from the rest of the madding crowd who is being rude and insistent. It all adds up and goes a long, long way: Ari got us a table, AHEAD OF PEOPLE WHO WERE THERE BEFORE US. The harried hostess told her it was because she was so polite. So there, now you know.

It was so, so worth it, getting into La Cucina Sul Mare. The seafood was the best we’d had on the Cape. (And we’d had a lot.)

Ari, our hero.

The zuppa di pesce is TO DIE FOR. La Cucina’s version of this fish soup comes with generous amounts of crab, lobster, scallops, clams, and various other magical sea creatures who died for our very appreciative benefit. Seriously. It was dream-inducing. I even get pangs at this very moment as I recall those amazing seafoody flavors…